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Tim is a low level corporate executive who’s looking to move up and when the opportunity presents itself he goes all to get the boss’ attention. Complications arise when the chances of him getting a promotion rest upon his ability to find and deliver an idiot to his boss’ monthly dinner where each of his fellow colleagues do the same in hopes of landing first prize for bringing the biggest loser.

IS IT A GOOD MOVIE?

Paul Rudd has had some zany roles over the past few years more or less starting with ANCHORMAN and continuing on through many of the Apatow comedies but after ROLE MODELS and I LOVE YOU,MAN to me he became one of the better go-to guys for obscure comedies. Now on the other end of that spectrum you have Steve Carell who some might argue is the king of obscure comedies but from where I’m sitting Carell’s comedic exploits leave much to be desired. So what’s the logical thing to do you might be asking, put these two boys together and see what happens of course. Opinions will vary depending on how much you like either actor but I can honestly say that DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS does have some appeal but ultimately fails to do much with it.

Points definitely need to be awarded for the concept as the dinner itself is quite an idea to build on. Without giving too much away, my only issue with the dinner is that it’s built up and built up but takes forever to happen. Now I suppose you can’t exactly have a dinner last forty-five minutes to an hour but I did feel it was a touch weak, with a couple interesting weirdoes but nowhere near the gong show I expected it to be. A blind swordsman, a best beard champion and some fool with a pet vulture? These were the best ideas they could come up with? I’ve seen weirder people on the subway.

Now in my opinion the funny guy in this film is Kieran, the insane artist. The guy’s an absolute riot in nearly all of his scenes. I laughed myself into tears when he was going on about not mating birds and mammals, when he was explaining his paintings or when he says “poppycock”. Kieran should’ve been the guy to rock the dinner but then again I suppose you can’t make fun of someone who’s making insane amounts of money no matter how balls out crazy they are. Now two things I wasn’t happy with are Zach Galifianakis’ character in general; his subplot was totally unnecessary and just plain dumb which ties in with Barry’s subplot that was again, unnecessary and really not funny. I won’t give anything away but it these two things severely hurt the tone of the film.

DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS has a cool premise, one that could have made for one hell of a funny comedy. Instead we’re left with a half-assed attempt that will no doubt have you laughing more than a couple times but it’s unclear as to whether or not you’d sit through the entire thing again anytime soon. For me, I will watch this flick again because the funny characters are just too good to forget (speaking of which I don’t want to leave out Mueller, the rich client these guys are trying to bag. That elevator shot with him pointing his ring finger was priceless funny). I loved where this film was going, I just wish they’d taken a different route.

THE EXTRAS

The Biggest Schmucks in the World: Here we have the cast and crew gushing over the amount of funny talent gathered for the film. Like I said, there was no shortage of potential here.

The Men Behind the Mousterpieces: Much like it sounds this is a brief look at the real people behind all of Barry’s work. I would have to say that mouse Jesus was my favourite.

Meet the Winners: This funny short is a mock interview with all the dinner guests who think they’re there to compete with the world’s most talented people. Again, some are well done, others not so much.

Schmuck Ups: This is actually a pretty funny gag reel for a change but I’m not surprised considering all the crazy characters involved.

Deleted Scenes: There are a couple laughs here, especially the bit about the hot dog factory but other than that I can see why they were cut.

Paul and Steve: The Decision: This little stint about Steve’s decision to change restaurants was bounced off LeBron James spotlight decision for kicks and ends up being alright but nothing special.

FINAL DIAGNOSIS

This film had a ton of great things going for it from the ideas to a good half dozen characters that were (surprisingly enough) well thought out and given enough time to shine on an individual level. Yet somewhere along the line some of the jokes got a little too hammy and the end result ended up coming off lazy and unsatisfying despite the handful of laughs that carried me to the finish line.

Extra Tidbit: As much as I loved Kieran, I can’t ignore the fact that I think they were trying overly hard to make him look, talk and act like Russell Brand. I hope Russell got a royalty check.

Nope...

sorry Hollywood, I have seen the original French one in a theatre in my little Swiss town, and it was a laugh out loud party for 80 minutes. I've seen the original later at home and it wasn't that funny... So you can keep your useless remake and put it where the sun don't shine.

sorry Hollywood, I have seen the original French one in a theatre in my little Swiss town, and it was a laugh out loud party for 80 minutes. I've seen the original later at home and it wasn't that funny... So you can keep your useless remake and put it where the sun don't shine.